The 2016/17 academic year marks the launch of our New Piano Campaign, a two-year effort to raise $1.5M for the purchase of 20 new pianos for the Carnegie Mellon School of Music.

The School of Music hosts hundreds of public performances each year, from student recitals to performances by distinguished international artists. I believe that these artists, our audiences, and certainly our students deserve the best pianos in the world.

Having high quality pianos is also key to attracting gifted students to Carnegie Mellon. The School has an inventory of 80 pianos, which are 40 years old on average. A number of these pianos need to be replaced just by virtue of age, and as you might imagine, the heavy usage a piano sees at a place like ours significantly shortens its useful life.

In purchasing 20 new pianos for the School of Music we would significantly improve our array of practice and teaching pianos, and especially our pianos used in performance.

The New Piano Campaign is off to a great start thanks to Robert and Susan Summer, whose marvelous generosity made it possible to purchase a magnificent new Steinway Model “D” Concert Grand piano that is happily enjoying its new home in Kresge Theatre.

I hope you will take a moment to read about a very meaningful commitment by one of our most distinguished and loyal alumni, Henry Spinelli.

Piano Campaign List

Give to the Piano Campaign

The Carnegie Mellon School of Music combines the strengths of a professional conservatory program with those of an innovative global research university to offer an education that fosters the artistic excellence, discipline, skills and entrepreneurship required by today’s competitive, dynamic music field.